Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Publishers Lunch

Tim Hely Hutchinson will retire as ceo of Hachette UK
at the end of the year, with Little Brown Book Group and Orion ceo David Shelley to
succeed him, reporting to Arnaud Nourry, starting January 1, 2018. He will also
become a member of the international board of Hachette Livre and a director of
Hachette Book Group USA. Nourry said
Shelley is "an outstanding publisher and he will be an inspiring and
inspired ceo."

Additionally, Jamie
Hodder-Williams, currently ceo of Hodder & Stoughton, John
Murray Press, and Headline and Quercus, will add the new role of director of
trade publishing of Hachette UK to his current responsibilities. He will join
the international board on January 1, heading up Hachette's international
rights deal business and working with sister companies and like Shelley will
also join the board of HBG USA.

Richard Kitson
will move up to deputy ceo starting January 1. Hodder Education group managing
director Lis Tribe
will join the executive committee starting July 1. Emily-Jane Taylor
will become director of financial planning and analysis, effective January 1,
reporting to Pierre de Cacqueray.

Nourry said of Hely Hutchinson: "I wish Tim had decided to stay for longer
but he is famously a planner and he has been working towards a crescendo with
great results and superb acquisitions.... He has had an amazing career, including
the founding of Headline, then Hodder Headline and finally working as my
business partner to create and expand Hachette UK. To my mind, his greatest
legacy is all the talent he has recruited and developed, including the senior
team whose appointments we are announcing today, but also more deeply
throughout the company."

At Open Road, Laura J.
Burns has left her position as executive editor and can be
contacted at LJBeditorial@gmail.com.
Julie Blattberg
has also left her position as vp of strategic operations and chief of staff and
can be contacted at julieb@julieb.net.

Lucinda Literary
will now work with Linda Kaplan atKaplan/DefioreRights
to sell U.K. and translation rights to their clients' titles.

AudioJon Hamm will narrate the recently discovered Walt Whitman novel Life
and Adventures of Jack Engle. The audiobook will launch on May
30, the day before Whitman's birthday.